Shipping container

ABSTRACT

The present invention disclosed a shipping container comprising a pair of side walls, a rear end, a front end, a roof, a floor and a base frame; said base frame further comprising two longitudinal bottom side rails and numbers of parallel bottom cross members, wherein said floor is made up of corrugated steel floor. On the premise of passing ISO test, it provides a container which is lighter in tare weight, less in material consumed and lower in production cost.

RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a further divisional application of patentapplication of Ser. No. 10/939,173 filed on Sep. 10, 2004 entitled ASHIPPING CONTAINER, which was a divisional application of a patentapplication of Ser. No. 10/200,786 filed on Jul. 22, 2002 and nowabandoned entitled A SHIPPING CONTAINER.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a shipping container, and moreparticularly, to the floor of a container. cl BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION

Containers were first used in cargo transportation in U.S.A in 1956.After more than 40 years' development, containers have been usedworldwide. In the course of the development of the container, designersand manufacturers are devoted to improvements on its structure, so as toimprove the functions of the container, reduce the material consumed andthe production cost. As shown in FIGS. 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, a conventionalshipping container consists of a pair of side walls 1, a rear end 2, afront end 3, a roof 4, a floor 5 and a base frame 6, where the baseframe 6 and the floor 5 constitute the bearer for the cargoes in thecontainer which is also called the base assembly. As shown in FIGS. 2,3, 4 and 5, the conventional container base frame mainly comprises twobottom side rails 601, numbers of bottom cross members 602, where thetwo ends of the bottom cross members 602 are welded to the bottom siderail 601 respectively, constituting a rigid integral frame structure. Inthe conventional container, plywood floor 5 (28 mm) is paved on thebottom cross members 602, and joined with the bottom cross members 602by screws 603, the plywood floor 5 and the base frame 6 make up thebearer for the cargoes in the container.

To pass the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) testfor containers, the cross members need to be arranged in high densitywith quantities of beams, and the bottom cross members should be made ofthick steel plates to satisfy the strength requirement, therefore, largequantity of material is consumed. In addition, the floor is made ofspecial hard wood. On one hand, there exist several shortcomings suchas: a great diversity in quality, expensive price, high cost, and easilyinfluenced by possible shortage of plywood floor supplies. On the otherhand, since it is thicker (28 mm) in thickness, the plywood floor isheavier in weight, and the tare weight of the container is heavieraccordingly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The main object of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomingsof the conventional container, and by making improvements on its floor,to provide a container which is lighter in tare weight, less in materialconsumed and lower in production cost.

The aim of the present invention can be achieved as follows:

A shipping container comprising a pair of side walls, a rear end, afront end, a roof, a floor and a base frame; said base frame furthercomprising two longitudinal bottom side rails and numbers of parallelbottom cross members, wherein said floor is made up of corrugated steelfloor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1, FIG. 1A, FIG. 1B and FIG. 1C show respectively the front, left,right and top views of a conventional container;

FIG. 2 is a partial top view of the base frame and plywood floor of theconventional container;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view taken along the A-A line of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view taken along the B-B line of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the connecting structure betweenthe bottom cross members and the plywood floor of the base assemblyshown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view of a preferred embodiment according tothe present invention;

FIG. 7 is a partial top view of the base frame and corrugated steelfloor of the container shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view taken along the A-A line of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a partial perspective view illustrating a kind of base framewhich is made up by C-shaped bottom cross members and corrugated steelfloor;

FIG. 10 is a partial perspective view illustrating another kind of baseframe which is made up by L-shaped bottom cross members and corrugatedsteel floor;

FIG. 11 is a cross sectional view taken along the B-B line of FIG. 7;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating the connecting structurebetween the bottom cross members as shown in FIG. 9 and the corrugatedsteel plates in the container shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 13 is a cross sectional view illustrating a kind of corrugatedsteel plate with stuffing in its grooves according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 14 is a cross sectional view illustrating another kind ofcorrugated steel plate with thin plate paved on it according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 15 is a partial perspective view illustrating floor structureaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a perspective partial cross sectional view illustrating thecontinuous corrugated steel floor with stuffing in its grooves accordingto the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a perspective partial cross sectional view illustrating thedisconnected corrugated steel floor with stuffing in its groovesaccording to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As shown in FIG. 6, the shipping container of this invention consists ofa pair of side walls 130, a rear end, a front end, a roof 430, a baseframe 630 and a corrugated steel floor 530.

As shown in FIGS. 7, 8, 11 and 12, the base frame of the containermainly comprises two bottom side rails 631 and several bottom crossmembers 632; both ends of the bottom cross members 632 are welded to theside of the bottom side rails 631 respectively; corrugated steel plate530 is paved on the bottom cross members 632, and welded on the bottomcross members 632 and two bottom side rails 631, constituting a rigidbearer for cargoes in the container.

Since steel is much better in synthetic mechanics performance than wood,and corrugated floor has good bending resistant capability, which arespecially advantageous for satisfying loading requirements andapplication features of container floor, the corrugated steel floor 530is better in mechanics performance and has higher load bearing strengththan the prior art plywood floor. With the corrugated steel floor 530adopted, thinner steel sheet and less material are required to achievehigh bending resistant capability. Besides, the welding of thecorrugated steel floor 530 with the bottom cross members 632 enhancesthe bending resistant strength of bottom cross members 632, reducescross sectional dimension, weight and cost. The corrugated floor 530according to this embodiment made of 2 mm thick steel sheet is goodenough to meet strength requirement.

In the above base assembly, bottom cross members 632 and the corrugatedsteel floor 530 can be joined by many ways, and the two preferred waysare given below:

As shown in FIG. 9, the corrugated steel floor 530 is directly paved onthe bottom cross members 632, and form a rigid integrated structureeither by welding at the external sides or by rivet. The bottom crossmembers 632 can be made of steel of C-shaped cross sectional form.

FIG. 10 illustrates another way of connecting the bottom cross members632 with the corrugated steel floor 530: the cross sectional form of thebottom cross members 632 is L-shaped, at the edge of the bottom crossmember 632, there are many convex teeth 633 matching with the concavegrooves of the corrugated floor 530, helping the bottom cross members tobe welded to the corrugated steel floor.

In above structures, the cross sectional form of the bottom crossmembers 632 can be L-shape, I-shape, T-shape, U-shape, C-shape orrectangle shape to suit the demands of various base frames.

Compared to the prior art, the base assembly of this embodimentpossesses following advantages.

(a) By substituting the prior art plywood floor with the corrugatedsteel floor, the rigidity and strength of the floor is enhanced, andthereby the load bearing capability of the base assembly is enhanced.

(b) Since the rigidity and strength of the corrugated steel floor isenhanced, the space between cross members are widened, and thereby thequantity and amount of cross members are reduced.

(c) Since the steel floor and cross members are welded into anintegrated entity, the material around the welding spot will greatlyenhance the bending resistant strength of the cross members.

Therefore, on the premise of passing ISO test, the thickness of thebottom cross member according to this embodiment is 3 mm thick, while ithas to be 4˜4.5 mm thick for bottom cross members of the prior art baseassembly. The use of corrugated steel floor improves the bendingresistant capability of bottom cross members, that is why the amount andweight of bottom cross members in this embodiment is much smaller thanthat of the prior art base assembly.

To further meet the demands of various applications, make the surface ofthe corrugated floor as plain as the plywood floor for the ease of cargoloading the floor structure of this embodiment can be improved infollowing ways.

As shown in FIG. 13, stuffing 531 can be filled in the concave groovesof the corrugated floor of the base assembly to make the surface of thecorrugated floor flat. Stuffing 531 can be made of various kinds ofmaterials such as wood, foam, plastics or other non-metal materials.

Said non metallic stuffing filled in the grooves of the corrugated steelfloor may be either continuously or incontinuously distributed along thegrooves.

As shown in FIG. 14, a layer of thin plate 532 can be paved on thesurface of the corrugated floor of the base assembly as an alternativeway to make the surface of the corrugated floor flat. The thin plate 532can be made of a variety of materials, such as thin wooden plate,composite plate or steel plate.

In order to fasten the cargoes in the container, some pieces of wood orother non-metallic materials may be retained on the floor 530. Followingimprovements on the structure of the floor may be adopted:

As shown in FIG. 15, the floor 530 consists of corrugated steel floor533 in the main, and several plywood bars or other non metallic stuffing531 such as wood, foam, or plastics, which are put together and paved onthe base frame 630 of the container, constituting a rigid base assemblyfor loading. The floor 530 and base frame 630 may be jointed by welding,riveting, or connecting via screws.

As shown in FIG. 16, which is a partial enlarged view of FIG. 15, thecorrugated. steel floor 533 is continuous at the position where the nonmetallic stuffing 531 is filled. The non metallic stuffing 531 iscompletely held within an integrated concavity 534 of the corrugatedsteel floor 533.

As shown in FIG. 17, the corrugated steel floor 533 is disconnected atthe position where the non metallic stuffing 531 is filled. The nonmetallic stuffing 531 is held within a concavity 534 which is formed bytwo adjacent disconnected corrugated floors 533 and has an opening 535at its bottom.

As shown in FIG. 15, FIG. 16 and FIG. 17, the steel floor 533 is nonuniform corrugated steel floor, which is formed by modifying thecorrugated steel floor structure in partial. The wavelength of eachcorrugation is not equal to each other, and there is a wider concavity534 at regular intervals, within which the non metallic stuffing 531 isinstalled.

The grooves with non metallic stuffing filled in may be or not be in acertain proportion to the grooves without non metallic stuffing filledin.

Alternatively, the steel floor may be common uniform corrugated steelfloor, namely, the wavelength of each corrugation is equal to eachother, where the grooves of the corrugated steel floor are made of theconcavities of the corrugated steel floor itself, and the non metallicstuffing may be installed at intervals within the predeterminedconcavities.

1. A shipping container, comprising a pair of side walls, a rear end, afront end, a roof, a floor and a base frame; said base frame furthercomprising two longitudinal bottom side rails and numbers of parallelbottom cross members, wherein said floor is made up of corrugated steelfloor which is directly paved on said bottom cross members, and weldedto the external side of the bottom cross members, constituting anintegral rigid structure; wherein there are non metallic stuffing filledwithin some of the grooves of the corrugated steel floor, and saidcorrugated steel floor is disconnected at the position where the nonmetallic stuffing is filled, said non metallic stuffing is held within aconcavity which is formed by two adjacent disconnected corrugated floorsand has an opening at its bottom.
 2. A shipping container according toclaim 1, wherein said non metallic stuffing may be made of wood, orfoam, or plastics.